Azerbaijan reveals its external public debt's ratio to GDP

By Trend

Azerbaijan's external public debt amounted to $7.4 billion, or 12.5 percent of GDP as of early April 2022, Azer Mursagulov, director of the Agency for Managing Public Debt and Financial Obligations under the Azerbaijani Finance Ministry, said, Trend reports.

According to Mursagulov, Azerbaijan's domestic public debt amounted to 2.6 billion manat ($1.53 billion), or 2.6 percent of GDP.

"The indicator of external debt is relatively lower than in other countries of our region. Besides, the ratio of Azerbaijan's total public debt to GDP is 15.1 percent," he said. "The cost of state guarantees provided by Azerbaijan is 1.8 billion manat ($1.06 billion), or 1.6 percent of GDP. Thus, the ratio of public debt to GDP is a little less than 17 percent".

The agency’s head also noted that the public debt funds are formed at the expense of long-term loans issued by international financial organizations. The average maturity of these loans amounts to seven-eight years (nearly two years for domestic debt).

Mursagulov stressed that the public debt of the countries of the world increased from nearly $85 trillion to $93 trillion over the year.